NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology- Madras (IIT-M)’s National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) has undertaken a collaboration with Punjab based Sukhbir Agro Energy Limited (SAEL) to explore fuel alternatives for paddy straw. The state produces a great volume of paddy straw every year which is mostly burnt off and the Centre has been pushing the State of Punjab to find an alternative to the traditional method of incineration for ridding the waste. Both the organisation will undertake R&D activities primarily focused on this.
Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, Professor In-charge, NCCRD, said that IIT-M would match the technical requirements while the project would be funded by SAEL. Jasbir Singh Awla, Managing Director, SAEL, added that conversion of up to 4000 MW could be possibly be extracted if the project is successful.
Technical aspects that IIT has ensured would range from providing systematic fuel characterisation, setting up of operational parameters for the boilers and mathematical simulation of the project. With this, they plan to minimise emissions and long running of boilers fueled by the paddy.